Wireless communication networks for providing links to mobile stations are well known in the art. In one type of wireless network, a series of access points provide wireless connections to various mobile users. For example, a building can include access points located at strategic locations to serve mobile users as they move throughout the building. The mobile users migrate from access point to access point based upon the strength of beacon signals from the various access points. That is, the mobile stations use the strength of the beacon signals to select the best access point at a given point in time.
With changes in the channel environment and/or number of users in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system, different access points experience different traffic loading. That is, the number of users served by each of the access points varies over time. Those access points that serve a relatively high number of stations (hot spots) can become overloaded and experience reduced performance. For example, an access point can become overloaded during a meeting in a conference room proximate the access point when the attendees attempt to connect their laptops to the corporate intranet.
When a mobile station entering a WLAN (e.g., via association or re-association), the mobile station broadcast a message in the WLAN (e.g., probe request) to some of all of the access points of the WLAN). In response each of the access points (APs) responds to the mobile station. Thereafter, the mobile station selects one of the access points to associate with based on the responses received from each of the access points (e.g., received signal strength indication or RSSI). However, when the mobile station selects an access point, the traffic load of the access point being associated and other access points may not be taken into consideration. As a result, the selected access point may not be the most appropriate one (e.g., having the least traffic load).